1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to vehicle maintenance and monitoring. More particularly, it relates to an apparatus and technique for tracking and maintaining a vehicle""s statistical information in a desired format on an easily accessible device.
2. Background of Related Art
Many persons desire to maintain complete and accurate records concerning their vehicles. In fact, some vehicle users desire to track statistical information which is readily available to them, such as fuel usage or mileage. This is particularly true for people having vehicles associated with their business and/or vehicles which require frequent fuelings, e.g., sports utility vehicles, recreational vehicles, luxury vehicles, etc. Unfortunately, it is often a tedious task to manually record statistical information regarding the vehicle. Moreover, many types of statistical information is not easily maintained and/or determined (e.g., maximum speed). Therefore, most persons do not, or are not able to, maintain complete and accurate statistical information relating to their vehicles.
Conventional on-vehicle computer systems mounted in vehicles for diagnostics purposes exist. Such on-vehicle systems typically maintain some basic data regarding the vehicle""s operational statistics and other various recorded data, or are focused on engine performance alone. However, this conventionally maintained information is not readily available to the vehicle""s owner without specialized monitoring equipment manually plugged into the on-vehicle computer system, typically accessed by raising the hood of the vehicle. In addition, these conventional on-vehicle computer systems do not typically make this monitored information available to the vehicle""s user for analysis or review. Instead, it is usually reserved for a trained technician""s manual retrieval and analysis.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an apparatus and technique which simplifies the recordation, tracking and maintenance of various aspects of a vehicle, and which allows a vehicle""s user or owner to review and analyze statistical data without the onerous need to raise the hood of the vehicle and to plug a specialized monitor into the on-vehicle computer system.
In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a wireless piconet transceiver for mounting in a vehicle comprises an RF piconet front end. Memory is adapted for storage of monitored statistics therein relating to at least one operational aspect of a vehicle. The monitored statistics are uploadable to another device on a piconet over the RF piconet front end.
A vehicle statistics maintenance system in accordance with another aspect of the present invention comprises a vehicle wireless piconet transceiver mounted in a vehicle, and a fixed wireless piconet transceiver. A wireless piconet network is temporarily established between the vehicle wireless piconet transceiver and the fixed wireless piconet transceiver to allow upload of desired vehicle statistical information from the vehicle wireless piconet transceiver and the fixed wireless piconet transceiver.
A method of maintaining statistics relating to an operational aspect of a vehicle in accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention comprises maintaining a log of measurements relating to at least one operational aspect of the vehicle in memory mounted in the vehicle. A wireless piconet network is temporarily established between the vehicle and a fixed wireless piconet transceiver. The log of measurements relating to at least one operational aspect of the vehicle is uploaded to the fixed wireless piconet transceiver using the temporarily established wireless piconet network.